During a recent family holiday gathering, I found myself in the middle of a perilous debate. I was asked to stand on the end of a crumbling gangplank over frothing waves and bloodthirsty sharks and answer dreaded questions of which I had no answers — at least not the answers that would have saved me from tripping over a rotten board and falling headfirst into the raging seas (i.e., eggnog).

What really threw me off balance were the three hats I had to juggle as the gangplank bobbed up and down: daughter of a homebuilder, wife of another homebuilder, and Realtor. These are difficult hats to wear any day — but when you need to switch in and out of them quickly, you might as well just jump in the punch headfirst.